A Supreme Court bench of the Chief Justice and Justices R. Banumathi and UU Lalit took up a petition by Mr. Jairam Ramesh, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) challenging the certification of the Aadhaar Act as a money bill by the Lok Sabha Speaker today.

Senior Advocates Mr. P. Chidambaram, Mr. Kapil Sibal and Mr. Mohan Parasaran represented the petitioner and the Attorney General and Additional Solicitor General Ms. Pinky Anand represented the Government.

Mr. Chidambaram stated that the Aadhaar Bill is not a money bill, as it does not meet the criteria laid down in Article 110 of the Constitution. The bench inquired whether the question of certification is open to judicial review? Mr. Chidambaram stated that it is their stand that it is open for review whereas the AG stated that it was not open for judicial review.

The AG also raised an objection to the petitioner filing the petition under Article 32 of the Constitution. Mr. Chidambaram stated that rule of law is a fundamental right and if that is violated by the Parliament a cause of action arises. He also stated that there are judgments of the Court, which state that if there is a substantial question of constitutional law arising in a particular case a person can come to the Court under Article 32.

The AG reiterated his objection on the locus and the Chief Justice asked if the AG was saying that the rule of law is not a fundamental right? The AG stated that the rule of law is a fundamental right, however, the definition of rule of law is too broad and cases are admitted for violation of rule of law there will not be any difference between the remedies provided by Articles 32 and Article 226 of the Constitution. He stated that a matter relating to seniority of a person may involve a question of rule of law but the person cannot approach the court under Article 32.

Mr. Chidambaram stated that equating the current case to a case of seniority would be making a caricature of the argument. He stated that both the houses of the Parliament have equal status and power and in this case the decision of the presiding officer of one house has deprived the other house of its powers.

He added that in the present case the presiding officer of the Lok Sabha violated the basic rule of law and this is too grave a matter to be rejected on the argument of locus. He stated that there is a clear violation of Article 14 among others, which contains the rule of law.

On the question of judicial review, the AG stated that if a bill is certified by the Speaker as money bill that decision cannot be examined. In response, Mr. Chidambaram argued that immunity extends only to matters of procedural irregularity and not an illegality citing the Raja Ram Pal case of 2007. (For a detailed analysis of why the Supreme Court has the power to judicially review the Speaker’s decision to classify the AADHAR Bill as a Money Bill please see: Aadhaar Act as a Money Bill – Judicial Review of Speaker’s Determination Concerning Money Bills)

The Court asked both the parties to submit a list of relevant cases and listed the matter for 20th July.